Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake has invited Sri Lankans and Indians who had to take back their deposits from banks in Switzerland to place their funds in Sri Lanka.

In view of the current close ties between the two countries, the Indians should consider Sri Lanka their ‘second home,’ Mr. Karunanayake said.

“No questions would be asked [about the source of funds],” he told The Hindu, before leaving for Japan on Sunday to join Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Instead of going to Dubai or Singapore, the depositors could come here.

“We will offer them interest rates, ranging from 1.5 per cent to 3 per cent, whereas they were getting nothing in Switzerland,” he added.

An official of the Finance Ministry explained that necessary changes in banking regulations of Sri Lanka would be made to ensure safety of funds to be deposited through the proposed scheme. The official explained that the Swiss authorities had asked the foreign depositors to declare to tax officials in their home countries by September end about the placement of their deposits, failing which the funds should be withdrawn.

According to an estimate, the total value of deposits held by Sri Lankan expatriates in foreign countries was about $15 billion. Asked how much he expected would be invested in Sri Lanka, the Finance Minister replied that he had no figure in mind and any amount would be welcome, the Hindu reports.

6 Responses to Place your money in Sri Lanka – Ravi

Ravi Karunanayake’s (Finance minister) in Srilanka talking absolute nonsense and the government of the Srilanka and the Central Bank of Srilanka never look after the deposits and the depositors . Please do not deposit money in Srilanka and deposit somewhere else, it is safe. What has happened the government registered financial company like CIFL in Srilanka.

There is no real incentive for Sri Lankans to remit their hard earned dollars to Sri Lanka to prop a bankrupt economy. Since the new government came into power in 8 months the rupee depreciated from around to 129 to 140 and this depreciation will continue for the simple reason that there is no meaningful strategy to either increase the foreign exchange earnings on the contrary there is more dollars moving out than coming in ….it was reported that since yahapalanaya took over nearly 500 000
vehicles had been imported and all this involved dollars.
It is strange that Sri lanka has abated real financial crisis and it is looming and attending global forums will not resolve our problems and ministerial lobby is not going to help much. If yahapalanay does not focus on agriculture we could look into the possibility of famine …..a is agriculture is propped up through wheat sent through USAID
As the dollar depreciates cost of living goes up for we are dependant on imports and for subsidies to be emaningful then it should be reflected in increased GDP unfortunately there is no reliable means of calculating the GDP.

This guy is a rogue. He keeps mahendran as the Governor of the Central Bank who credentials have been questioned about his qulifications and his loyalty.
Further if this guys is so concerned about the $$$ then he should keep track of SSS that leaks through the porus Foreign exchange controls and with his crooked frend Mahendran makes it even easier.
On paper private banks are supposed to be accountable then how can his claim of the 15 billion doallrs held by Sri Lankans abroad is fantasy for he has no idea about how many Sri Lankans are abroad. Most of the remitances made are from the arab countries for lankans living in europe and the US will never dream of investing in Sri Lankan until there is transparency